Bless YOU all for a wonderful Year! 1998 (c.e.) was incredible year of growth for both the Pagan web and the Witches' Voice. Much was learned and an incredible amount of information was shared. This happened by the community and for the community. TWV has been able to offer this free resource without any advertising for yet another year. Thank YOU all for your support! Although Wren and I just ain't "past tense people" we do make a conscious effort every January to reflect upon the previous calendar year (see our 97 Wrap up for last years reflection). This is a struggle for us but always an enlightening and valuable one. Look for our year end wrap up this January.

Our White Board: We have never been short on ideas but finding the time to implement them properly is always the challenge. We keep a white board in our office to collect, organize and prioritize our plans and dreams. Look for implementation of some wonderful new sections of TWV in 1999. Also in this coming year we plan to work hard to better utilize the wonderful offers of help that we receive on a regular basis.

TWV Web site Tweakage... It has always be one of our goals to make the Witches' Voice web site easy to surf and intuitive by design. Do know that this entire site is in a constant state of remodeling and polishing, sections and pages that you may be familiar with can and do change all the time. These past several weeks have rendered much improvement in our networking sections...

Correct and for the Good of all - During the past moon cycle we have verified and cleared out dead links and inactive email addresses throughout our entire Networking section. This includes verification of some 13.000 links and email addresses. In 1999 we will take this to a more effective and efficient level.

Site Map Rewrite - TWV has grown quite dramatically in size over the past year and a dynamic and fast SiteMap was called for. We are proud to point you to its latest incarnation. The Witches' Voice SiteMap v4.3.

Covens and Groups links introduced- A long time coming but must do to help celebrate the incredible work done at the local level. Direct access to these listings is now available via our site map. Click Here to check out Covens and groups in your area.

Submission Forms updated- In an effort to better qualify guidelines, minimize abuse and to render an easy submission experience we have tweaked up and rewritten many of our submission forms. Click Here to submit your Group, webpage, store, event, personal contact info.

A Spokesman of... The Disappointed: lately Wren and I just keep turning back to those XTX lyrics (from the album NonSuch) for some reality checks. In the past 30 days we have been inundated with requests for help related to Pagan sites that steal, graphics, articles, concepts only to present them as their own. This is very disappointing to say the least. TWV, like so many, have been a constant victim of all of the above (Check out... Givers, Takers and the Pagan Web Part I or Part II and Celeste's Thoughts for more on this subject). Why someone would desire to offer something that is NOT original or interesting to the Pagan community is incomprehensible to us. Mercifully, these takers represent a minority of the pagan online community. With the Pagan Web now over 2,000 sites some wonderful stuff CAN be found. There is so much magick within and so many untapped ideas (see Jorah's "Creativity and the Pagan Web"). Before you do the "more of the same", take some time and look within. You'd be surprised as to what you can come up with. Many of the needs of the community are obvious, all it takes is initiative and lots of hard work.

Make 1999 YOUR year to share your magick with our community.

What Keeps US Sane? The new Neil Finn Disc "Try Whistling This" and the Spongetones "Oh Yea!", Key lime pie, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (see link just below), our two resident "turbo princesses" Dixie and Ruby, more wonderful friends than anyone could ask for and our deep love for each other.

We are excited about the opportunities that the next calendar year will present. Wren and I do plan on "getting out" more in 1999 and are pleased to announce that we have been invited to speak at the PhoenixPhyre Festival (Check out their Website for the latest) late March. We did attend their AutumnMeet gathering (see our review) and had a glorious time meeting so many incredible spirits. Thank YOU Wade and Dianne for making all of this possible.

Updated Daily: Wren's Nest posts updates on discrimination cases, legislative alerts, calls for action and general comments about Pagan issues around the world.

Stories covered this past week at Wren's Nest:

Anniversary Of The Massacre At Wounded Knee On December 29TH. Gay And Out-Out Of The School Library, That Is... For Those In Peril On The Roads Reality Check: Do Teen Girls Need Witchcraft Or Science? Solstice Citations: Group Arrested During Celebration Equal Access Means Equal Access A Witch's Yule, Protestors Return To Razed Site Determined To Fight On President Clinton Mentions Winter Solstice In Speech ACLU Wins Ohio City Seal Case Fairies-The Next Fad? "The Spirit Is Gonna Get You..." Virginia To Consider Pro-Life License Plate Survey On Lincoln Park Sparks Huge Response. Wren Wrants: A Pumpkinhead In The White House Another Day In Washington

For more information on the latest stories related the Modern Pagan. Surf to Wren's Nest

(Luna graphic bySteven Craig Hickman)

The Witchvox December Essay Series:This week we are proud to present 9 brand new essays from Witches, Wiccans and Pagans from around the world. We would love to experience your work. Check out our Editorial Submission Guidelinespage for a submission guidelines and topic list and other details.

The HOT new listing of Covens and Groups at the Voice!100 Groups and Covens listed in the first Week!!!Although the net has dramatically changed the way the modern Pagan communicates it just can't hold a candle to the one on one or group dynamic. TWV exists to support and celebrate the local covens, groups, and shops. The need to connect and learn with others is a driving force in our community. Three weeks ago we kicked off this listing and much to our surprise 242 Groups and Covens have signed up... These new listings are now tightly integrated into our "Witches of the World" pages... This is happening because you asked for it.

242 Covens & Groups have already submitted their info... Surf to the new any of our State/Prov/Country pages to check out Groups and Covens in your area.

Group Related Pages:: Over at Texas Pagan Awareness Online... Lhiannon has just put up a wonderful page on approaching Groups or Teachers... Check it out at TPAO. New in our Teens Section... Check out Phoenix's valuable new article called "Forming a Pagan Student Group"

Frequently Asked Question's(about the Witches' Voice). (12/28/98)Although we work hard to cover all popular questions we receive in email by creating pages on this site, many of the same questions just keep coming in. This box will be used to answer the most asked questions of the Witches' Voice.

Q: Why don't you make money by selling books for Amazon.comA: Good question. Although Amazon.com is a brilliant web retailer and a great resource for the Pagan that has no local outlet for books, they celebrate the pagan community with the same zest and passion that they celebrate the model airplane community. It has always been our personal decision to support the Witch/Pagan Shops of the World. They DO make a substantial part of their living FROM the sales of books. Lets face it, the key local networking element in the modern Witchcraft movement has been the local Witchshop. It's where so many of us FIRST made contacts with others of like mind (Wren and I met in a Witchshop). By offering community services, most of these shops show that they really do care about the same.

This young Manx Pagan has been protesting the destruction of this small, but beautiful piece of woodland (for a car-park). He's now stepped-up his protest to a full fast, as of the 22nd of November. He's taking water, but no food, and living in a plastic-sheet covered platform 30' up an ash-tree. With barely room to turn around, and none to stand, he intends to fast until the 9th of December, the date of the planning review. If the planning review fails, then he shall remain, and starve with his tree. (photo of Derek by Bev Richardson)

What is Witches' Voice vs. RC5-64? It's the meeting of two projects-- supporters of The Witches' Voice joining together to form a team on The Bovine RC5 Project, working to make encryption stronger and hopefully raise some money for The Witches' Voice.

Oh. How does it work? The total possible number of keys (68,719,476,736) has been broken down into blocks. Now, what you do is download a client and run it on your system. It goes out to RC5, and downloads a number of blocks (this is set by you) and starts applying the keys to a section of the code. Once it's done, it uploads the tested blocks and downloads more. With tens or hundreds of thousands of computers across the world running this client, you've got the largest code-cracking network in existence.

Okay, what do I do? Go to Click HERE to check out FAQ's on this interesting challenge. (Wren and Fritz are honored to thank our friend and sponsor Cather "Catalyst" Steincamp for spearheading this opportunity for the entire Witch, Wiccan and Pagan community.)

Website structure, evolution and php coding by Fritz Jung on a Macintosh G5.

Any and all personal political opinions expressed in the public listing sections (including, but not restricted to, personals, events, groups, shops, Wrenâ€™s Nest, etc.) are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinion of The Witchesâ€™ Voice, Inc. TWV is a nonprofit, nonpartisan educational organization.

Sponsorship: Visit the Witches' Voice Sponsor Page for info on how youcan help support this Community Resource. Donations ARE Tax Deductible.
The Witches' Voice carries a 501(c)(3) certificate and a Federal Tax ID.